If the goal was to shift the dialogue of American politics,
then certainly:
The chief accomplishment of OWS won’t be a new party or new regulations, let alone the dissolution of the corporate state. Rather, its legacy will be placing class inequality squarely at the center of public debates and transforming how Americans understand economic progress. Polling data show that OWS has had a profound effect. According to a Pew Research Center report issued this month, 66 percent of Americans believe there are “strong” or “very strong” conflicts between the rich and poor, a 19-point increase since July 2009. The number of people who believe there are “very strong” conflicts (30 percent) has doubled in that timeframe.
OWS’s achievement becomes all the more impressive when one considers how rarely Americans, steeped in the Protestant work ethic and Horatio Alger myths, have embraced class affiliations. As John Steinbeck accurately deduced, “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” Recent elections have undoubtedly focused on economic issues, but post Reagan, political discussions have mostly featured talk about how to create jobs, with Democrats embracing unions and financial regulation (at least rhetorically) and Republicans touting free market solutions. Inequality and class were the topics of a bygone era.